Tag: Palestine

David Friedman opposes two-state solution, backs undivided Jerusalem as capital and has acted for Trump's failing hotels.
Donald Trump has named as his ambassador to Israel a pro-settler lawyer who has described some US Jews as worse than concentration camp prisoner-guards.
David Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer who represented the president-elect over...

On November 9, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Donald Trump through a video message, in which the Israeli leader could barely contain his giddiness at the prospect of a friendlier White House. The ruling Israeli right-wing coalition, which sees Trump as a potential champion of Greater Israel, believes...

Iranian politicians from across the spectrum have praised the election of a new president in Lebanon. The Lebanese parliament elected Michel Aoun Oct. 31, ending a more than two-year presidential vacuum in the country.
In Tehran, the move was warmly welcomed. President Hassan Rouhani called Aoun and congratulated him on...

In 2010, Israel's then-defense minister, Ehud Barak, explicitly warned that Israel would become a permanent “apartheid” state if it failed to reach a peace agreement with Palestinians that creates their own sovereign nation and vests them with full political rights. “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River...

Last week, a major censorship controversy erupted when Facebook began deleting all posts containing the iconic photograph of the Vietnamese “Napalm Girl” on the ground that it violated the company’s ban on “child nudity.” Facebook even deleted a post from the prime minister of Norway, who posted the photograph in protest of the censorship. As outrage...

Hamas has called on Saudi Arabia to prevent the normalization of relations with Israel. The appeal, which went up on Hamas' website July 31, raised eyebrows among those who understand Hamas' complicated situation and the importance of tightening relations with Saudi Arabia. The leaders of the movement, who only...

On the morning of August 28, 2014, two days after the end of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Sohaib Zahda hopped into a shared taxi in Hebron that was going to Ramallah, where he had a job interview. Thirty-three-year-old Zahda, who owns a paintball company, is an unlikely terrorist. An avid cyclist who speaks Arabic, Italian, French, and English, he is a member of Youth Against Settlements, a nonviolent organization that protests against Israeli settlers who live in and around Hebron.

As expected, Ankara has begun to take sharp turns in its foreign policy. Following a statement by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim that Turkey will pursue a more realistic foreign policy to decrease enemies and increase friends, the first major turn has appeared in Israel-Turkey relations.
Relations between the two countries were radically degraded after May 31,...

Move clears way for an easing of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Israel and Turkey agreed to restore full diplomatic ties after more than six years of animosity, clearing the way for renewed cooperation between the U.S. allies and an easing of Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Officials...

The Political Utility of Military Restraint.
In recent years, Israel's military leadership has appeared to be more dovish than the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. From 2009 to 2012, for example, the Israel Defense Force’s top brass helped block the Netanyahu government’s plan to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities,...

The U.S.-Saudi Arabia alliance, which survived the oil embargo in 1973 and the attacks of September 11, 2001, in which fifteen of the nineteen passenger jet hijackers were Saudi citizens, is coming under new strains. A new generation of Saudi Arabian leaders is adjusting to what it sees as...

Egypt's April 9 announcement of the transfer of two islands, Tiran and Sanafir, to Saudi Arabian sovereignty came as a complete surprise to many in the Middle East. The only country that was not surprised was Israel. A top-level official in Jerusalem told Al-Monitor on April 12 that Israel had been privy to the secret negotiations. Israel...

A Britain outside the EU means Israel will lose an important insider voice and critical traction in the shifting and sometimes hostile EU debates about what policies to adopt toward Israel.
It will, of course, be an internal, domestic decision for the United Kingdom’s voters on June 23 when they...

The GOP front-runner told a skeptical audience exactly what they wanted to hear, calming his critics — and winning some new supporters along the way.
One of America’s most indelicate men tackled some of the world’s most delicate issues on Monday — and escaped unscathed.
In an address to the powerful...

Since 2009, international interest in the Eastern Mediterranean’s offshore oil and gas resources has followed a cycle from widespread excitement, to a stall in activity, to disappointment and back to excitement again. The Levant Basin has seen several discoveries that could have a big impact on domestic economies. However,...

Iranian officials and media have condemned the recent decision by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to designate the Lebanese group Hezbollah a terrorist organization.
GCC Secretary-General Abdul Latif bin Rashid Al Zayani said March 2 that the designation was the result of Hezbollah’s “hostile acts” in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. He...

When Arab streets exploded with fury, from Tunis to Sanaa, pan-Arabism seemed, then, like a nominal notion. Neither did the so-called ‘Jasmine Revolution’ use slogans that affirmed its Arab identity, nor did angry Egyptian youth raise the banner proclaiming Arab unity atop the high buildings adjacent to Tahrir Square.
Oddly,...

In addition to blowing the cover on Israel’s secret dealings with the Gulf states to target Iran, the defense minister expressed Israel’s hope that Syria might be divided up into ethnic enclaves, each ruled by mini-warlords.
SEATTLE (ANALYSIS) - Israel’s defense minister spoke with uncharacteristic bluntness recently as he outlined...

No concessions to al-Qaeda allies at Geneva talks.
In a potentially encouraging sign, the High Negotiations Committee, the Saudi-backed Syrian umbrella opposition group, has agreed to attend the UN-mediated Geneva peace conference. The committee is saying, however, that it will not meet with the government delegation until the Syrian military...

Shared animosity toward Tehran fosters a new push for closer ties.
Growing tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have raised hopes in Israel that officials can build closer ties with the Gulf monarchies based on their shared animosity toward Tehran.
Led by Dore Gold, director-general of the foreign ministry, Israel has...

The covert alliance between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Zionist entity of Israel should be no surprise to any student of British imperialism. The problem is the study of British imperialism has very few students. Indeed, one can peruse any undergraduate or post-graduate British university prospectus and...

Why Washington’s Middle East Pullback Makes Sense.
The Obama administration has clearly pulled back from the United States’ recent interventionism in the Middle East, notwithstanding the rise of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and the U.S.-led air war against it. Critics pin the change on the administration’s aversion...

Afshin Rattansi goes underground with the world's most wanted publisher – the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. He just co-authored a book called “The WikiLeaks Files,” which paints a picture of systemic US torture and killing as well as the destruction of the lives and livelihoods of billions of...

HAIFA, Israel - Moty Kuperberg wishes the warm, azure Eastern Mediterranean could be more like the North Sea.
The shipping executive doesn't favor cold water, although a map of Antarctica hangs in his office in Haifa.
Instead, Kuperberg aims to mimic the way the North Sea's petroleum industry boosted the economies...

Israel and Hamas share common interests, and the Palestinian Islamists must stay in power in the Gaza Strip to prevent the enclave descending into chaos, an Israeli general was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Major-General Sami Turgeman, who as commander of Israel's forces outside Gaza had a leading role in...

The Israeli government can now legally seize Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem after judges approved the use of a controversial law.
The Palestinian side of the holy city had previously been exempt from the Absentees' Property Law, brought in after the 1948 war to allow arriving Israelis to move into abandoned...

For more than half a century, Saudi Arabia has tried to use its vast oil wealth to build a lobby in the United States that could rival the imposing Israel Lobby. At top dollar, the Saudis hired law firms and PR specialists – and exploited personal connections to powerful...

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is weighing a new approach to Middle East peace that may be less supportive of Israel, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised doubts that he would ever accept a Palestinian state.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro said on Israeli radio Sunday that if it’s impossible...

US military strategists are contemplating the threat of war to redraw the Middle East’s energy architecture around Israel.
A new report by the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute emphasises the need for “US security and military support” to its key allies in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly Israel, over...

The fundamental obstacle to the 'peace package' and Israel's interests in becoming a regional energy hegemony is the continued existence of Hamas in Gaza.
“The destruction which I have seen coming here is beyond description,” said UN secretary-general, Ban Ki Moon, after his October tour of the Gaza Strip.
Operation Protective...